April 8, 2025

Snapchat rolls out Sponsored AI Lenses for brands

Snapchat is introducing Sponsored AI Lenses, a new ad format that lets brands engage with consumers in an immersive way. While Snapchat has offered brands the opportunity to pay for sponsored lenses on the platform for years, now they can leverage AI-generated experiences powered by Snap’s proprietary generative AI technology. With these interactive lenses, brands […]

March 2023

France bans recreational apps like TikTok on government devices

March 27, 2023

France is the latest country that is taking steps to ban TikTok from government-managed devices. Stanislas Guerini, the Minister of Public Transformation and Service, and his services issued a succinct statement announcing the move and the reasoning behind this change. But there’s a twist. Instead of simply banning the social media app, the French government […]

France bans recreational apps like TikTok on government devices by Romain Dillet originally published on TechCrunch

Alibaba founder Jack Ma returns to China after a year of uncertainty

March 27, 2023

Jack Ma’s whereabouts are making headlines again roughly a year after the billionaire founder of Alibaba disappeared from the public eye. Bloomberg reported Monday that Ma had chosen to stay abroad despite China’s efforts to restore confidence in entrepreneurs, citing unnamed sources. Within hours, however, news surfaced that Ma actually visited an Alibaba-funded K-12 school […]

Alibaba founder Jack Ma returns to China after a year of uncertainty by Rita Liao originally published on TechCrunch

An early guide to policymaking on generative AI

March 27, 2023
This article is from The Technocrat, MIT Technology Review’s weekly tech policy newsletter about power, politics, and Silicon Valley. To receive it in your inbox every Friday, sign up here. Earlier this week, I was chatting with a policy professor in Washington, DC, who told me that students and colleagues alike are asking about GPT-4…

GitHub takes down repository containing Twitter’s source code

March 27, 2023

Microsoft-owned GitHub took down a repository by a user named “FreeSpeechEnthusiast” that contained proprietary source code to Twitter after the social network filed a DCMA takedown request. The username certainly seems to be a jab at Twitter owner Elon Musk, who has claimed to be a “free speech absolutist” many times. On Friday, Twitter filed […]

GitHub takes down repository containing Twitter’s source code by Ivan Mehta originally published on TechCrunch

Activist investor Elliott ditches director nomination plans for Salesforce

March 27, 2023

Activist investor Elliott Investment Management won’t be proceeding with plans to nominate its own directors to Salesforce’s board, citing improved performance and a clearer “focus on value creation” from the enterprise software company. Elliott — one of five activist investors within Salesforce’s ranks — announced ahead of Salesforce’s recent Q4 earnings that it was pushing […]

Activist investor Elliott ditches director nomination plans for Salesforce by Paul Sawers originally published on TechCrunch

First Citizens to acquire Silicon Valley Bank

March 27, 2023

First Citizens BankShares has agreed to buy Silicon Valley Bank, the California lender that served as lifeblood of thousands of startups and whose collapse sent shockwaves through the financial sector, the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said on Monday. The deal includes the purchase of about $72 billion assets of Silicon Valley Bank at a […]

First Citizens to acquire Silicon Valley Bank by Manish Singh originally published on TechCrunch